Rose Diamond Nectarine Conserve - June Taylor

Rose Diamond nectarines are a large, firm, richly flavored hybrid varietal with very red skin that preserve beautifully. June uses a traditional method to produce these conserves, resulting in a soft set texture which better preserves the fruits' fresh flavors. These conserves have a very low sugar content and no commercial pectin.

About the Producer

June Taylor's wondrous array of jams, preserves, conserves, syrups and marmalades, handmade in Berkeley, invites us to expand our flavor horizons and think of these products as more than just toppings for morning toast.

For June, everything starts with the fruit, or more accurately, fruits: she uses 50 to 60 different varieties in creating her products! Her fruit is organic and grown in the U.S, much of it locally (in Northern California), and she is passionate about absolutely top-notch quality and excellent flavor, so if a particular fruit is having a substandard year, she will pass on it that season and try something else. She has a relationship of trust with the farmers who produce fruit for her, and they understand her rigorous quality standards.

In her production methods - she and her assistant make everything themselves - she insists on small, completely hand-produced batches of her products. The process is involved and labor-intensive, but once you've tasted her preserves and marmalades, you may wonder why anyone does it differently. Even the lovely letterpress labels for her jars are applied by hand.

June specializes in heirloom and other forgotten fruits, those ignored by companies, large and small, whose product profiles are set in stone. The fruit is hand-cut and then cooked, quickly, to maintain maximum flavor. June adds only minimal amounts of sugar and only the fruit's natural pectin, basing her methods not on a formula but on taste and flavor, and so each batch is different. She would rather produce a soft-set marmalade in which the fruit shines through than meet an industrial, artificial expectation of how stiff it should be.